As a popular interpretation of the events I think Tudors does an admirable job depicting Henry VIII's role. Most importantly he was not a reformer, he had written a tract opposing Luther and had been named 'Defender of the Faith' by the pope. His goals changed over time as he needed more extreme actions to get what he wanted, an annulment. The process of reform began when he began to rely on men who did want to see reform. In particular, Cranmer and Cromwell were significantly more reformed than Henry. Yet, during his life Henry very much opposed any radical moves. He had even executed Lutherans in the early 1520s. Once he decided to break with Rome, he simply wanted to transfer the authority of the pope to the monarchy or to the archbishop of canterbury, a royal appointee. The most radical change was the dissolution of the monasteries, which was a fiscal rather than religious choice. Otherwise, the introduction of English language in services and printed bibles was the most radical move. In practice, the rites and liturgies of Christian services did not change markedly during his reign.

It should also be noted that the break with Rome was itself a policy of Cranmer who had proposed that the king could seek legal opinions outside of Rome and then favored using the English legal system to enact the separation. In the end, the primary legal claim used to threaten English clergy and underpin the new royal authority was a set of 14th c. laws called praemunire. These laws opposed the imposition of papal oversight that had happened under King John (the bad one from Robin Hood, the guy who was also forced to sign the Magna Carta). The Act of Praemunire made illegal any appeal to a foreign power that was cognizable by an English court. This meant that any appeal made to Rome on canon law became illegal. Tragically, Henry used this law to arrest and try Cardinal Wolsey who had been appealing his annulment in Rome even though he was there on the king's orders!

To conclude the major sweep of reforms happened during the regency of Henry's young son Edward VI and then again under Elizabeth, although she mostly consolidated the Edwardian reforms and added her own twists to match her personal religiosity.

For a sweeping overview you can look at:

Moorman, John R. H. A History of the Church in England. London: A. and C. Black 1953.

or

Chadwick, Henry. Not Angels, but Anglicans: A History of Christianity in the British Isles. Norwich: Canterbury Press, 2010.